10 June 2011 (Toronto) — In less than 72 hours more than 700,000
people have viewed an online spoof video featuring the moment Ken
discovers that Barbie is involved in rainforest destruction, and
almost 200,000 have swamped Mattel’s offices with emails complaining
about the company’s use of products from Indonesian rainforests to
package toys like Barbie.

The massive online protest has led to a formal complaint to Facebook
about a frowning version of Ken’s face online. Greenpeace was today
informed that some of its online materials have been ‘disapproved’ by
Facebook ‘in response to an intellectual property complaint’.

Greenpeace says that the world’s largest toy company has failed to
take the steps required to remove products linked with deforestation
caused by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) from its supply chain. The group
says that a promised ‘investigation’ is inadequate and that without a
tough new paper and packaging policy Mattel is continuing to force
parents into buying products linked to the destruction of tropical
rainforests.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are now involved in the campaign to
get Barbie to drop rainforest destruction,” said Richard Brooks,
Greenpeace Canada forest campaign coordinator. “But instead of
listening, we’re now being silenced on Facebook.

“They didn’t listen to Ken, and they haven’t listened to the ever
growing number of people who have emailed. Promising an investigation
isn’t enough. They’ve got to drop APP and introduce an entire policy
to cut rainforest destruction out of their products, permanently.”

Greenpeace insisted that its campaign would continue until Mattel
introduces a tough policy to solve this problem.

On Tuesday, Greenpeace revealed that packaging for Barbie is produced
using timber from the rainforests of Indonesia, home to endangered
species such as the Sumatran tiger. At the same time, Greenpeace
activists, dressed in tuxedos to mimic Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, scaled
Mattel’s Los Angeles HQ with a giant banner saying: ‘Barbie: It’s
Over. I Don’t Date Girls That Are Into Deforestation’.

Greenpeace investigators used forensic testing to reveal that Barbie’s
packaging comes from the Indonesian rainforests. They also used a
combination of ‘in country’ investigation, mapping data and traced
company certificates to show that Mattel, the makers of Barbie, along
with other toy companies including Hasbro and Disney, are using
packaging produced by Asia Pulp and Paper. APP has been exposed many
times for wrecking Indonesia’s rainforests to make products such as
packaging.

Since the revelations, Mattel has promised to investigate, but has
given no indication that is has a policy to be used as the basis for
this investigation.

Indonesia has one of the fastest rates of forest destruction in the
world. The Indonesian government estimates that more than one million
hectares of rainforests are being cleared every year.